'Shocking' failure to overturn McGowan's red card sends out 'bad message' for future of football - Brady

The ‘shocking’ decision to send off Aaron McGowan against Crawley Town and the FA’s subsequent failure to rescind his three-match suspension sends out a ‘bad message’ to fellow professionals and young supporters, according to manager Jon Brady.

Brady spoke about Northampton’s unsuccessful appeal for the first time after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Hartlepool and revealed that he has been in contact with Mike Jones, the head of EFL referees, since the incident.

"I spoke to Mike Jones the other day and I asked him about alignment between EFL referees and the FA because there doesn't seem to be any alignment – and he agreed with me,” said Brady.

"There's no understanding there. He told me it shouldn't be a red card for Aaron McGowan and maybe it shouldn't have even be a yellow. Inconsistency is the biggest problem and the alignment between the EFL and the FA.

"When are these people going to get together and have a bit of alignment so they are all signing from the same hymn sheet and get a better understanding of each other? Instead, one does one thing and another does another.”

Crawley’s Jack Roles went unpunished despite his theatrics which effectively led to McGowan’s red card. Journalist for national newspaper The Times, Martin Samuel wrote on Saturday: “The FA won’t say it, referees won’t say it, and it doesn’t look like anyone else is going to say it; so here goes. Jack Roles, of Crawley Town, is a cheat. Last weekend he cheated to get an opponent sent off. And got away with it.”

Brady added: "We were briefed at the start of the season about playacting and I talked about kidology the other day. What message are you sending out to players in our league and young fans?

"Young Cobblers fans were at the game and they see Jack Roles get away with a stamp and he’s rolling around on the floor holding his back and holding his face. It's shocking and it's sending a bad message out for the future of the game. He gets away with it and I think it's so disappointing.

"They talked about this at the very start of the season. We had a manager's briefing about deceitfulness and those sort of actions and we were told it would be stamped out.”